Stuck throttle

[Lonnie]

Had a little excitement today.

Took the truck for a ride & noticed when I went to shift, the rpm hung as I pushed the clutch in.
Thought it was odd, but rolled into the next gear & it did the same.

Figured I better turn around & go back home.
As I pulled onto a side road to turn around I saw the tach go to 2100 without touching the gas.
Got it pointed in the right direction & headed for home. Didn't want to stop until in my driveway & fortunately there were no stop lights or intersections to deal with.

Was going about 45mph without touching the throttle.

Turns out the lock nut inside the injector pump on the idle stop vibrated loose & was preventing the throttle from returning completely.
Every time I pressed the throttle it moved & held it open even further.

Its a little unnerving driving something that big when it wants to keep going faster.
Got it fixed & back to normal, but not without elevating my pulse a little.

 

[wreckerman893]

In the Army we call that "Pucker Factor". The more dangerous the situation the tighter your sphincter puckers up. Sounds like you had a pucker factor of six maximum.

 

[doghead]

Rather than cowboy ride that truck home, you should have pulled over and looked for your problem. It sounds like it could have been temporarily fixed on the side of the road with no tools. That would have been the smartest/safest thing to do.

Glad you didn't get killed or kill someone else.

 

[Lonnie]

Pucker factor was not that bad, I was more concerned that something was happening to the engine.

Was less than 2 miles of deserted backroads to my house.
It wasn't like it was out of control... it has a clutch, brakes & a governor to control it.
45mph is still much slower than everyone else drives, so your concerns are valid, but not critical as if in city traffic.

My first thought was the engine was ingesting some stray oil or some kind of injector pump malfunction.
I was just hoping I could shut the engine off when I got home. It was a big relief when it shut off with the ignition switch.

The biggest thought was why would Cummins put a locknut inside the injector pump where it can cause this situation instead of on the outside where you could see & even check it for tightness. This nut is under a riveted on cover, behind the throttle linkage. You wouldn't know it is there unless you had to look for it.

 

[73m819]

What series 5t

 

[Lonnie]

M818

Guess I should update my signature...

 

[jedawson1]

I was 12 the first time I had a throttle stick, it was on an old farm truck. I got real nervous and did what I thought was the right thing and turned the key off. That caused the steering column to luck up, I jammed on the brakes as I skid through a barbed wire fence. A day of fencing and some wd40 and the problem was solved. Happened to me again when I was 16 in an old Buick, this time I patted the throttle until it let go. Glad you made it home safe.

 

[Lonnie]

Mine was stuck at part throttle fortunately, having one stick at wide open would cause a few tense moments.

Steering column locks are good for anti-theft, but not so much for turning the engine off while moving.
They aren't supposed to go to the lock position unless in park, but I have heard of quite a few doing just that.
There was a Corvette recall a few years back for this.

We were warned at the drag strip not to turn the key off while going down the track for the same reason.
Locking the steering at 100mph would not be good.

Neutral is the best bet, but not good for the engine in most cases.